By Nicholas Vinocur and Bernie Woodall PARIS/DETROIT, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Five years after Jeffrey Hand took a $100,000 buyout to leave Ford Motors, the U.S. auto industry has surged back to profit and is once again hiring. Hand, who has spent the years living on his payout, has now applied to work at an auto parts supplier a few hours away from his old factory near Dearborn, Michigan. Across the Atlantic, father-of-three Hassan Chnaiti took a buyout from French carmaker Peugeot earlier this year, as it prepared to close his plant near Paris.

Dominick's officially notified the state on Oct. 30 that it is closing all of its Chicago-area stores Dec. 28, affecting a total of 5,633 workers. The notices were filed through the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, better known as WARN, which requires businesses with 75 or more employees to give the state 60 days notice of pending plant closures or mass layoffs. Meanwhile, Mariano's, the fast-growing upscale grocery chain led by former Dominick's President Bob Mariano, confirmed during an earnings call Thursday that the company is exploring the acquisition of some Dominick's locations. "We are reviewing those stores and are in the process of determining which stores could fit our strategic plan for Chicago, based on our existing network of stores and our current expansion plans for Mariano's," said Mariano, CEO of Roundy's, the chain's Milwaukee-based parent.

Whether the Bears have enough firepower to upset the Packers on Monday night in Green Bay remains to be seen. But coach Marc Trestman will take his team into Lambeau Field with a profound sense that his players are eager to take the test. Due to scheduling quirks, it's been a strange stretch for the Bears. They haven't won since Oct. 10 when they held off the Giants 27-21 on a Thursday night at Soldier Field. But the Bears have only played once in the 24 days since. And that was a 45-41 loss at Washington on Oct. 20 that was followed by the team's bye week.

PARIS, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Union leaders at a Goodyear tyre plant in northern France have agreed to talks with a Texan executive who caused a furore earlier this year by saying the factory was "not worth saving". Titan International CEO Maurice Taylor accused the plant's workers of being lazy and its unions of being "insane" in an open letter to the French government in February. But Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg, who had traded barbs with Taylor, has said the executive was reconsidering his abandoned takeover bid for the plant.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp, the largest U.S. defense contractor, on Wednesday became the latest weapons maker in recent months to announce layoffs, saying it would let go of 600 workers in its Mission Systems and Training Division later this month. Lockheed spokesman Keith Little said the layoffs were not linked to the partial U.S. government shutdown, but reflected the increasingly challenging business environment. The company said it would provide details by November 6 about which of its 100 locations around the country would be affected.

Gov. Pat Quinn today indicated that hundreds of additional state workers could be temporarily laid off if there's no resolution to the federal government shutdown within the next several days. That news from the Democratic governor came in a letter he sent to Republican U.S. House Speaker John Boehner urging him to "listen to the American people" and end the impasse. The state workers who could be laid off hold jobs with paychecks tied to federal funding. Those positions range from workplace safety inspectors to caretakers for people with disabilities.

The partial shutdown of the federal government caused Chicago-area Head Start programs to close Monday and threatened to force additional layoffs of state workers. The shutdown had not been expected to immediately disrupt funding for Head Start in Illinois, but a "glitch" in the federal grant distribution system forced 13 centers in northern Illinois to close for the day because they couldn't access money awarded before the shutdown, said Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, executive director of the Illinois Head Start Association.

JPMorgan gave notice to 145 employees last month that they may lose their jobs, according to a report filed Thursday. The planned layoffs are at the company's Chicago base at 10 S. Dearborn St. Restructuring was given as the reason for the move, but no further information was immediately available from the company. The first layoffs are seto to take place the Friday before Thanksgiving. The second-largest group of planned layoffs, contained in WARN notices filed with Illinois, is at the Bennigan's restaurant at 150 S. Michigan Ave., across from the Art Institute of Chicago.